Silence
by angels-of-the-silence
Summary: Can a Gigai get ill? Or is the soul inside it the one that is ill? The spazmotic and insane Rukia has run away, again, and the only one to see her won't be telling a soul. Now Jeni's turned up to make it worse. Joy!
1. Chapter 1

Silence had been something that Rukia had always enjoyed and treasured. There was never much of it in her life, and those few moments of quite always allowed her to think clearly about what was going on around and inside her.

Hugging her Chappi bunny doll to her chest, she stared at the ceiling. She was in a cot that had been put in Kairn and Yuzu's room. The other two were still downstairs, eating dinner. While she'd been welcomed into the Kurosaki family like a long lost daughter, she still didn't feel right about everything.

She enjoyed the silence, but it did give her a chance to think, and remember. At the moment, she couldn't get her mind away from the memory of dark nights, and rainy days. She couldn't forget, as much as she wanted to. The weight of her sin had been crushing down on her right after, and now it seemed that it was coming back.

Rukia sighed, and closed her violet eyes tight. She probably should go down to eat, but was afraid that she'd act depressed, and one of the others would ask what was wrong. She knew she couldn't answer that question. She didn't even know herself, but, if she didn't go, they would think her ill or impolite.

Silence, the greatest pain and sorrow to her was also her savior. She pulled a hand away from her Chappi bunny, and pulled the covers up over her head. She didn't want to move, she felt ill. Well, maybe she was getting sick. Could a Gigai get sick? She didn't know, but she felt like it.

She tried to fall asleep as Kairn and Yuzu came in, and got ready to sleep. She heard Ichigo poke his head into the room, but he disappeared before she could do anything, not that she would have. She didn't manage to sleep at all, and around three in the morning, when the rain, which had been threatening to fall all day, finally started its downpour, she got up, and dressed.

She needed to get away. Silence, that's what she needed, and she knew that she wasn't going to get it here. Behind her there was a thump as Ichigo hit Kon against the wall. Then all was quiet. Rukia had paused while the noise was going on, and then, once the house had quieted down, slid out of the room. She padded quietly down the hall, and stopped in front of Ichigo's door.

For a few moments, she just stood and stared at the fifteen symbol on his door. When the echo's from the thump died down, she opened the door, and went inside. A note was scribbled hastily, and this time she didn't even bother with a code. A bag of duck's feathers was laid beside it. The feathers had come from a duck that Rukia had chased in the park. Just so he knew it was really her.

She left the house as quietly as she could. Using the door, not the window. She ran into the night, tired of everything. Someone saw her go though. Isshin just shook his head. His son was going to go insane when he found out that the girl had gone again. Ho boy.


	2. Chapter 2

The night was cloudy, although there was no hint of rain in the wind that blew, teasing her hair as it whisked leaves off the ground. Rukia paused, looking at the clouds that were moving quite fast across the sky. Every so often, the moon would be visible through the thinning layer of haze. She had no idea where she was going to go. There had to be a place where she could find something to make her feel better.

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Isshin had been correct in his assumption that Ichigo would go berserk once he'd found out that Rukia had left. It had taken a while, because, in Isshin's opinion, his son was rather slow when it came to finding things. In this case it had been about an hour before he noticed that:

A. Rukia wasn't running about like she normally did, and…  
B. She wasn't in the cot that had been her bed.

These two things had set Ichigo on a frantic search of the house; a questioning of each member of the family followed the search. Karin had just rolled her eye, and continued eating her breakfast, Yuzu had shook her head, and only said that that she'd thought she'd heard a thump last night. Ichigo assumed she had meant when he'd slammed Kon into the window, so he ignored this. His father… well, was his father. He'd gone all soppy, and Ichigo had had to kick him. This had not helped Ichigo's temper.

He's stormed out of the house, on his way to school. Isshin had been rather worried, he didn't feel like treating any major injuries today, and his son looked like he was in the mood to kill. Isshin had seen his daughters out of the house, and walked back upstairs to Ichigo's room. He pulled Kon out of the drawer, and smiled.

"Kon, stop pretending."

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Ichigo was moody all day, and when Keigo attempted to cheer him up, he was punched in the face. Orihime knew what was wrong, as she always knew what was wrong when Ichigo was involved. In one way, she was happy about having Ichigo to herself, but this was a very very small part of herself, which was over-ruled by the other part of her, which was very sad that Ichigo was upset, and that Kuchki-san was missing.

Orihime was ashamed of the small bit that was jealous of Kuchki-san. She knew that if she went missing, Ichigo would come after her, but… there was something special about the way he looked at the horizon, as though hoping Kuchki-san would be standing, her silhouette outlined against the sun. He wouldn't have done that had it been Orihime who was missing.

Orihime was quite all day long, so much so that Tatsuki had commented on it. Orihime had merely waved her hands, and told her best friend that she was fine, before falling silent again. In fact, the silence without Kuchki-san was massive, almost…. Oppressive. Wherever she was, Orihime hoped that Kuchki-san was okay, both for her sake, and for Ichigo's.


	3. Chapter 3

Masaki, it was a beautiful name, fit, indeed, for the woman that had been Isshin's wife. Rukia watched the grave, which was lit by the flash of lightning. The rain that she'd managed to outrun had caught up to her at last, and she stood, observing the last resting place of the body of Masaki. A hollow, she knew, had eaten the soul of Ichigo's mother.

Rukia wondered what the woman had been like. Kind, thoughtful, wonderful, perfect… those were all words used by Isshin to describe her, but Rukia wondered what she'd been like, as herself. It was a weird way to describe it, she knew, but… It made sense, in a warped kind of way.

As the rain fell in sheets around her, Rukia turned to look at the trees that lined the cemetery. She remembered the shock of hearing that Ichigo had killed him own mother. It had been an honest mistake, but still. Actually, it was a lot like Rukia and Kaien-dono. Both she and Ichigo had killed the one person who had made their existence worth the pain, and the death of that single person had sent shivers down many people's lives. Death, Rukia reflected, might only be the beginning, but in many other ways was more horrible than life.

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Isshin was snoring; his head face down on Ichigo's desk. Kon, completely oblivious to this, was walking back and forth, his small stubby arms crossed, and his large flat face contorted into a puzzled expression as he walked back and forth on the desk, yelling and ranting to the air.

Isshin had fallen asleep about the third sentence, the rain putting him to sleep. His last waking thoughts had been that maybe it had been a bad idea to involve Kon in this, and that Kisuke would have been a better option. Of course, had it been Kisuke, he would have made some remark, and tried to sell Isshin something useless. Besides, Ichigo would think of that, sooner or later.

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Ichigo had his cheek pressed against the cold window, watching the schoolyard. He and a few others were in the classroom, and a few people had commented on his manner, mostly Keigo. Ichigo had punched him out of habit, not out of any real desire to show his friend that he was an idiot. Orihime had seemed distant too, but Ichigo was more focused on what had happened to Rukia.

It was now that Renji popped up behind him, and started yelling at Ichigo for something pointless, and probably stupid. Ichigo pushed himself away from the window, and started yelling back. It didn't really matter what he shouted, it was Renji, and he didn't pay attention.

It was rather a good thing that Renji was in a Gigai, as Ichigo would have looked like a downright idiot to be shouting at thin air. Everyone looked around, realized it was Kurosaki and the other one with weird hair, and went back to doing what ever they'd been doing.

After a few minutes of commotion, Renji finally calmed down, and looked around.

"Hey? Where's Rukia." Ichigo just stared at him… he'd just noticed?!

"She's gone," Ichigo growled, picking up his bag. "Left last night." He walked toward the door, Renji right behind him, shouting questions at Ichigo, which he ignored.


	4. Chapter 4

Strangely, she felt better. Rukia mused on this point as she walked slowly along the wet pavement. She watched the shops go past slowly as the rain continued its domination of the world. She paused outside a window, and pressed her nose against it. Oh look! Bunnies!

It had been around the fourth hour of ranting that Kon had noticed Isshin's absence from the world of the living. The small squishy thing had kicked him hard, which hadn't really hurt, and with a muffled snore/grunt/thing, Isshin had come back to the world.

"Whassfut?" He muttered, glaring at Kon. He ignored the puddle that had formed on his son's desk; Ichigo could clean it up later, or be shouted at by Yuzu.

"Kurosakiiiiii-sannnnn," The small plush toy whined, "You fell asleep, just when I was getting to the part about Nee-san."

"Oh, right, go on." Maybe this would be worth his time. He'd wasted... how many hours on this? Five? A hundred? He had no clue at this point; Kon's ramblings had gone on and on, and even had invaded his dreams. Wow, there was a scary thought.

" Well," Kon continued, looking hurt that Isshin had not been paying attention,

"Nee-san left a note. It was really late, about three, but of course, being the devoted…"

Isshin had gone back to sleep.

"Ah! Kurosaki-kun!" Urahara waved at Ichigo as he appeared in the doorway of the shop. Urahara had his 'talking to customers' face on, as was normal. He was soaking wet, as was everything in the world at the moment. The rain from last night still had not stopped

"Where is she?" A few second later, Urahara was being held up in the air by just the front of his robes.

"Now Now Kurosaki-kun!" He said, tapping Ichigo on the head with his fan. This maneuver had been perfected to cause the maximum amount of embarrassment in Ichigo, while at the same time seeming reasonable. To Ichigo, nothing seemed reasonable.

"If you hurt me, you won't get your question answered, will you?" He said in sugar sweet toned. He was lowered to the floor, with more of a bang than a soft landing though.

"That's better." The grin slid slowly off his face as he switched to 'serious shopkeeper mode'. This was slightly more appropriate for the situation, but still, Ichigo wasn't satisfied. He shook Urahara slightly, although this didn't do much, as Urahara was about the same size as Ichigo, and probably used to this.

"Where… is… she…" Ichigo said slowly, drawing each word out as though it caused him agony. "Where… is… Rukia…." Renji had finally managed to arrive. He had had trouble in the Gigai he wore, as he'd forgotten that he couldn't run through walls. Ichigo, normally willing to laugh himself silly at Renji doing something so idiotic, just told him to hurry up.

Reji collapsed in the doorway, more wet than even Ichigo at this point. Urahara's face switched back to 'happy shopkeeper', and he waved at Renji.

"Hello Free-loader-san!" Ichigo had to stop himself from hitting the man.

"Rukia?" He asked again, his teeth grinding together. Urahara looked back at Ichigo.

"Yes, come this way."


End file.
